Widening the chat to all his offspring, he adds: “It’s a good family. The kids are following their dreams and they’re ably doing it under their own steam. They could wait for me to croak… but that’s not happening.”

I’m meeting Plant in his North London local, naturally, to mull over his latest album, the richly atmospheric, worldly-wise Carry Fire, his first since 2014’s Lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar.

It’s the latest chapter in his forward-facing career and explains why a Led Zeppelin nostalgia fest remains an unlikely prospect.

There is a new element to Plant’s lyricism, created by his dismay at a world going off the rails

“I heard this morning that someone is intent on colonising Mars, the red planet, and yet if that’s possible, how come we’re not able to take in the ebb and flow of humanity, brother to brother, side by side, the different languages? We haven’t got things right so people are ready to bail.”

More questions are posed on the fired-up Bones Of Saints which looks at who buys the bullets, who sells the guns. “And yet we know very well that if there were no armament factories, nothing would be happening,” says Plant.

“We have to watch it all like some prolonged TV serial… somebody in an opium den somewhere writing the next episode.”

Another song, New World, is about “colonialism, imperialism” and speaks for all humanity yet was specifically inspired by Plant’s time in Austin, Texas, where he lived with then girlfriend, singer Patty Griffin.

There he learned about the plight of the Comanche people and their leader, Quanah Parker, how they were driven out of Texas to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, which then became a massive US military base.

Plant found visiting the fort “a crippling” experience.

“In the middle of it all, past the McDonald’s and the movie halls and once you’ve gone through the wire fences and presented your passport, you come to the graves of the Apache scouts.

“There you will also find the grave of Quanah Parker yet nobody from his tribe can visit because of where it is.”

Finally, we return to Plant’s own situation, what drives this single-minded artist.

“You know, this is not a career,” he says.

“It’s an assembly of remarkable gifts and experiences.

“If I’m going to weave some words around three or four-minute pieces of music, it’s got to be what’s going on in me and around me.

“I’ve tried a lot of guises as a man and it’s been like having a wardrobe of attempted personality changes.

“They’ve all had great flurries and flushes… then sometimes the wheel spins…”

I can’t help interjecting: “You really have had an amazing life.”

“Apparently,” he replies.

“I’d like to find out what the f*** has been going on!”

ROBERT PLANT Carry Fire

1. The May Queen
2. New World…
3. Season’s Song
4. Dance With You Tonight
5. Carving Up The World Again…A Wall And Not A Fence
6. A Way With Words
7. Carry Fire
8. Bones Of Saints
9. Keep It Hid
10. Bluebirds Over The Mountain
11. Heaven Sent